This feels like the first day of summer, a crystal clear evening with just a trace of cool in the air and one of our great indie rockers Philadelphia's Kurt Vile and his band the Violators kicking the lo-fi claim to the floor as the sun begins to set on an hour long set at Summerstage.
I have never really gotten Vile though I did like his first band, War on Drugs. While admittedly his name put me off, so did his songs as a solo artist, even state of the indie rocker art "Jesus Fever", off his hugely popular Smoke Ring Of My Halo, which failed to make my best of 2012. There was something just too much every junkie is like a dying sun vibe about the guy for my tastes,
But tonight, with his long stringy hair and three piece backing band, with stirring Crazy Horse jams and, yes, Harvest country ballads, Kurt became what I guess he always was, an American classic. To a packed to the gills and long drifting lines of punters waiting to get in to Summerstage (here's a clue, get there an hour before the gates open and be patient, you'll get in), it didn't appear that theyw ere there to necessarily just see the headlines, West Coast's Dawes. At Ground zero for the indie sweetheart, people wanted Kurt and they were respectful and enthuisiastic throughout his set.
Vile is a concentrated power player and a long way from his lo-fi roots, at Summerstage he played grunge without the high/low concept and poured whoever he might be into the sound. "Can you turn up the voice by maybe 20%," Kurt asks, before adding "Give me as much as you have". The next song his intimidating softly harsh voice grows to a scream. It is that sort of an eye for detail to keep in mind.
The set was never in question but somewhere near the middle they played another Neil Young soundalike that gained power the longer it went till it, not changed directions, but steamed into a gorgeous Crazy Horse jam, where my only complaint is that it wasn't long enough.
Late in the set Kurt returns to his lo-fi roots with a solo acoustic number, and it is OK, but much better ll was a flawless "Freak Train". "You're the best, you're beautiful" Kirt said on one of his few acknowledgements of the audience, before one of the single most beautiful songs I've heard all year. Better than the recorded version, suddenly the name you were thinking of was Sonic Youth with a skronking sax and a feed back laden ending, the Violators all tactic war on sound and gorgeous let us in call to arm thru music.
I ran into Summerstages artistic director Erika Elliott after the set and she tells me this is the first night the weather has been kind to Summerstage. They are only a couple of dates in but this was a set that deserved a twilight coming into its own sort of power. Maybe it isn't me, maybe, maybe, maybe Vile is getting much, much better.
Grade: A-